Information processing apparatus, file management apparatus, and file management system

ABSTRACT

An information processing apparatus, includes a query unit that requests a query for a file to a device in a transmission destination or a transmission source based on a transmission or reception history of the file, in response to a restoration instruction to restore the file from a terminal device, the restoration instruction being made after a deletion instruction to delete the file is made at the terminal device; and a file restoration unit that restores the file by acquiring the file from the device storing the file in a case where the file is found to be present in the device in the transmission destination or the transmission source as a result of the query.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is based on and claims priority under 35 USC 119 from Japanese Patent Application No. 2019-050023 filed on Mar. 18, 2019.

BACKGROUND Technical Field

The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, a file management apparatus, and a file management system.

Related Art

JP-A-2005-173724 discloses a documentary management system that is configured with at least one file server that assigns an attribute to a file which is shared on a network, and at least one client terminal that is capable of accessing the file through the network, the documentary management system, in which the file server includes an original duplication determination unit that determines new registration of, or duplication registration of, a file, based on an attribute of a file uploaded from the client terminal; an original registration unit that assigns an attribute including an identifier of the file server to an original file uploaded, in a case where a determination as the new registration is made in the original duplication determination unit; a duplicate document retention notification unit that notifies a file server corresponding to a server identifier, which retains an original acquired from attribute information on a duplication file, of identification information on a server with which a duplicate document is registered, in a case where it is determined in the original duplication determination unit that a file is a duplicate; and a duplicate document retention server management unit that stores and manages the server identifier that is notified by the duplicate document retention notification unit.

SUMMARY

Aspect of non-limiting embodiments of the present disclosure relates to provide an information processing apparatus, a file management apparatus, and a file management system that are capable of easily restoring a file in a case where the file is deleted comparing with a case where a transmission destination of the file is searched and the file is sent back from the transmission destination found. At this point, the file means one piece of data or a program, and is exemplified as a document, data such as a moving image, or a program for executing a computer.

Aspects of certain non-limiting embodiments of the present disclosure address the above advantages and/or other advantages not described above. However, aspects of the non-limiting embodiments are not required to address the advantages described above, and aspects of the non-limiting embodiments of the present disclosure may not address advantages described above.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an information processing apparatus including: a query unit that requests a query for a file to a device in a transmission destination or a transmission source based on a transmission or reception history of the file, in response to a restoration instruction to restore the file from a terminal device, the restoration instruction being made after a deletion instruction to delete the file is made at the terminal device; and a file restoration unit that restores the file by acquiring the file from the device storing the file in a case where the file is found to be present in the device in the transmission destination or the transmission source as a result of the query.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Exemplary embodiment(s) of the present invention will be described in detail based on the following figures, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram illustrating a file management system according to an exemplary embodiment according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a home server that is used for the exemplary embodiment according to the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a descriptive diagram illustrating reception of a file in the exemplary embodiment according to the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating history information on a file that is recorded in an upper server;

FIG. 5 is a descriptive diagram for describing Case 1 where a file is restored, in the exemplary embodiment according to the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a sequence diagram illustrating a flow of information in Case 1 where the file is restored, in the exemplary embodiment according to the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a control flow for a home server in Case 1 where the file is restored, in the exemplary embodiment according to the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a descriptive diagram for describing a flow of information in Case 2 where the file is restored, in the exemplary embodiment according to the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a sequence diagram illustrating the flow of information in Case 2 where the file is restored, in the exemplary embodiment according to the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a descriptive diagram for describing a flow in Case 3 where the file is restored, in the exemplary embodiment according to the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a sequence diagram illustrating the flow in Case 3 where the file is restored, in the exemplary embodiment according to the present invention;

FIG. 12 is a sequence diagram illustrating a flow of information for restoring a file according to another exemplary embodiment according to the present invention; and

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating a control flow in a case where the file is deleted, in the exemplary embodiment according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Next, an exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. A file management system 10 according to the exemplary embodiment according to the present invention is illustrated in FIG. 1.

The file management system 10 includes multiple networks. For example, there are two networks. Terminal devices 12 a and 12 b and terminal devices 12 c and 12 d, and servers 14 a and 14 b and the servers 14 c and 14 d are connected to each other through networks 16 a and 16 b, respectively. The terminal devices 12 a to 12 d, for example, are personal computers or mobile terminals. The networks 16 a and 16 b may local area networks and may be the Internet. Servers in one pair, the server 14 a and the server 14 c, are shared between the terminal devices 12 a and 12 b and between the terminal devices 12 c and 12 d, respectively. Servers in the other pair, the server 14 b and 14 d, manages the access rights of users of the terminal devices 12 a, 12 b. 12 c, and 12 d, may specify a user who uses the access right, and are hereinafter referred to as device management servers. Furthermore, the networks 16 a and 16 b are connected to the Internet through routers 18 a and 18 b, respectively, and in addition, are connected to servers 20 a and 20 b, respectively. The servers 20 a and 20 b manage a home server 14 a and are hereinafter referred to upper servers.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating pieces of hardware, home servers 14 a and 14 c. Each of the home servers 14 a and 14 c each has a CPU 22, a memory 24, a storage device 26, and a communication interface 28. The CPU 22, the memory 24, the storage device 26, and the communication interface 28 are connected to each other through a bus 30.

The CPU 22 performs processing that is determined in advance, based on a control program that is stored in the memory 24. The storage device 26, for example, is configured with a hard disk. Software or data is stored in the storage device 26. Data is input to and output from the communication interface 28 over the above-described networks 16 a and 16 b.

FIG. 3 is a descriptive diagram illustrating an outline in a case where a file is transmitted and received. At this point, when a terminal device of Mr. A and a terminal device of Mr. B are defined as the terminal device 12 a and the terminal device 12 c, respectively, a home server of Mr. A and a home server of Mr. B are defined as the home server 14 a and the home server 14 c, and an upper server of Mr. A and an upper server of Mr. B are defined as the upper server 20 a and the upper server 20 b, respectively.

First, in Step S10, Mr. A instructs the terminal device 12 a of Mr. A to send a file with “file ID: 1” to Mr. B. In the next step that is Step S12, the file with “file ID: 1” that is stored in the storage device 26 of the home server 14 a of Mr. A is sent to the home server 14 c of Mr. B. In Step S14, the home server 14 a notified the upper server 20 a that “file ID: 1” is transmitted, and a record remains that the file with “file ID: 1” is sent to Mr. B. On the other hand, in Step S6, the home server 14 c notifies the upper server 20 b that “file ID: 1” is received, and a record remains that the file with “file ID: 1” is received from Mr. A. Moreover, in Step S18, the file with “file ID: 1” arrives at the terminal device 12 c of Mr. B. In this case, the file with “file ID: 1” is stored in a distributed manner in the terminal device 12 a of Mr. A or the home server 14 a of Mr. A, and the terminal device 12 c of Mr. B or the home server 14 c of Mr. B.

It is noted that a file ID that is peculiar to a file is given to each of all files. As the file ID, in a case where a file is created, for example, an ID that is obtained by a hash function is given. Not only in a case where a file is created, but also in a case where a file is updated, an ID is given to the updated file as another file.

Furthermore, for example, a history that is illustrated in FIG. 4 is recorded in the upper servers 20 a and 20 b. That is, for every file ID, in addition to a sender (which is recorded as an user ID of the sender), a date and time of transmission, a receiver (which is recorded as a user ID of the receiver), a data and time of reception, an operation history (deletion, reading, copying, or the like), and a date and time of operation, a creator, a date and time of creation, or the like is recorded as meta information (which is recorded as bibliographic information).

Next, dealing with a case where a file is deleted will be described.

First, as illustrated in FIG. 5, in Step S20, for example, in a case where a storage capacity of a file becomes low, and so on, when Mr. A operates the terminal device 12 a of Mr. A and thus provides an instruction to delete the file with “file ID: 1” that is stored in the home server 14 a of Mr. A, the file with “file ID: 1” that is stored in the home server 14 a is deleted.

In this manner, although the file with “file ID: 1” is deleted from the server 14 a, a record that the file with “file ID: 1” is sent to Mr. B remains in the upper server 20 a of Mr. A, and the file with “file ID: 1” continues to be present in the home server 14 c of Mr. B.

In the next that is Step S22, the home server 14 a of Mr. A notifies the high-lever server 20 a of Mr. A that “file ID: 1” is deleted. The upper server 20 a of Mr. A records the fact that the file “File ID: 1” is deleted from the home server 14 a of Mr. A. Information that is deleted from the home server 14 a of Mr. A, along with information that “file ID: 1” is sent to Mr. B, is stored in the upper server 20 a of Mr. A.

(Case 1)

As Case 1, an example of a case where Mr. A deletes the file with “file ID: 1” is illustrated in FIGS. 6 and 7.

As illustrated in FIG. 6, in a case where Mr. A restores the file with “file ID: 1”, in Step S24, the terminal device 12 a of Mr. A instructs the home server 14 a of Mr. A to restore the file with “file ID: 1”. In Step S26, the home server 14 a of Mr. A, when instructed to restore the file with “file ID: 1”, inquires the upper server 20 a of Mr. A whether or not the file with “file ID: 1” is present. Because the record that the file with “file ID: 1” is transmitted to Mr. B is present in the upper server 20 a, in Step S28, the upper server 20 a of Mr. A, when inquired whether or not the file with “file ID: 1” is present, inquires the upper server 20 b of Mr. B whether or not the file with “file ID: 1” is present. In the next that is Step S30, the upper server 20 b of Mr. B notifies the home server 14 a of Mr. A that the file with “file ID: 1” is present. In Step S32, the home server 14 a of Mr. A, when notified of the presence of the file with “file ID: 1”, makes a request to the home server 14 c of Mr. B for acquisition of the file with “file ID: 1”. Because the file with “file ID: 1” is present in the home server 14 c of Mr. B, in Fig. S34, the home server 14 c of Mr. B, when receiving the request for the acquisition of the file with “file ID: 1”, transmits the file with “file ID: 1” to the home server 14 a of Mr. A, and the home server 14 a of Mr. A acquires the file with “file ID: 1”.

As illustrated in FIG. 7, in Step S36, the home server 14 a of Mr. A determines whether or not it is instructed to restore a file. The home server 14 a of Mr. A waits until instructed to restore the file, when not instructed to restore the file, and proceeds to the next step that is Step S38, when instructed to restore the file.

In Step S38, the upper server 20 a is inquired, for example, whether or not the file with “file ID: 1” is present. In the next step that is Step S40, it is determined whether or not notification of the presence of the file is received. Waiting is continued until when the notification of the presence of the file is received, in a case where the notification of the presence of the file is not received, and the processing is ended in a case where the notification of the presence of the file is received. In Step S38, in a case where it is determined that the notification of the presence of the file is received, proceeding to the next step that is Step S42 takes place.

In Step S42, a request for the acquisition of the file with “file ID: 1” is made to a home server, the home server 14 c of Mr. B in this case, which is notified that the file is present.

In the next step that is Step S44, the file with “file ID: 1” is acquired and the processing is ended.

(Case 2)

In FIGS. 8 and 9, as Case 2, a case where Mr. B deletes the file with “file ID: 1” is illustrated.

First, as illustrated in FIG. 8, in Step S46, when Mr. B operates the terminal device 12 c of Mr. B and thus provides an instruction to delete the file with “file ID: 1” that is stored in the home server 14 c of Mr. B, the file with “file ID: 1” that is stored in the home server 14 c is deleted.

In this manner, although the file with “file ID: 1” is deleted from the home server 14 c, a record that the file with “file ID: 1” is received from Mr. A remains in the upper server 20 b of Mr. B, and in addition, the file with “file ID: 1” continues to be present in the home server 14 a of Mr. A.

In the next step that is Step S48, the upper server 20 b is notified that “file ID: 1” is deleted from the home server 14 c of Mr. B. The upper server 20 b of Mr. B records the fact that the file with “file ID: 1” is deleted from the home server 14 c of Mr. B. Information that is deleted from the home server 14 c of Mr. B, along with information that “file ID: 1” is received from Mr. A, is stored in the upper server 20 b of Mr. B.

Next, as illustrated in FIG. 9, in a case where Mr. B restores the file with “file ID: 1”, in Step S50, the terminal device 12 c of Mr. B instructs the home server 14 c of Mr. B to restore the file with “file ID: 1”. In Step S52, the home server 14 c of Mr. B, when instructed to restore the file with “file ID: 1”, inquires the upper server 20 b of Mr. B whether or not the file with “file ID: 1” is present. Because the record that the file with “file ID: 1” is received from Mr. A is present in the upper server 20 a, in Step S54, the upper server 20 b of Mr. B, when inquired whether or not the file with “file ID: 1” is present, inquires the upper server 20 a of Mr. A whether or not the file with “file ID: 1” is present. In the next that is Step S56, the upper server 20 a of Mr. A notifies the home server 14 c of Mr. B that the file with “file ID: 1” is present. In Step S58, the home server 14 c of Mr. B, when notified of the presence of the file with “file ID: 1”, makes a request to the home server 14 a of Mr. A for the acquisition of the file with “file ID: 1”. Because the file with “file ID: 1” is present in the home server 14 a of Mr. A, in Fig. S60, the home server 14 a of Mr. A, when receiving the request for the acquisition of the file with “file ID: 1”, transmits the file with “file ID: 1” to the home server 14 c of Mr. B, and the home server 14 c of Mr. B acquires the file with “file ID: 1”.

(Case 3)

In FIGS. 10 and 11, as Case 3, an example of a case where the home server 14 a of Mr. A ceases functioning.

In a case where the home server 14 a of Mr. A ceases functioning, as illustrated in FIG. 11, it is assumed that the home server 14 a that ceases functioning is replaced with a new home server 14 e (referred to as the “new” home server 14 e).

In this manner, although the home server 14 a ceases functioning and thus is replaced with the “new” home server 14 e, the record that the file with “file ID: 1” is sent to Mr. B remains in the upper server 20 a of Mr. A, and the file with “file ID: 1” continues to be present in the home server 14 c of Mr. B. It is noted that, in a case where many files other than the file with “file ID: 1” are stored in the home server 14 a of Mr. A, as is the case with “file ID: 1”, any other file is dealt with.

At this point, in a case where Mr. A restores a file, in Step S62, the upper server 20 a of Mr. A is instructed to restore the file. However, the “new” home server 14 e may be instructed to restore the file. In Step S64, the upper server 20 a of Mr. A, when is instructed to restore the file, acquires the upper server 20 b of Mr. B whether or not the file with “file ID: 1” is present. Because the record that the file with “file ID: 1” is received from Mr. A is present in the upper server 20 b, in Step S66, the upper server 20 b of Mr. B, when inquired whether or not the file with “file ID: 1” is present, notifies the terminal device 12 a of Mr. A that the file with “file ID: 1” is present. The presence of the file with “file ID: 1” is notified to the “new” home server 14 e. In Step S68, the terminal device 12 a of Mr. A, when notified the presence of the file with “file ID: 1”, makes a request to the home server 14 c of Mr. B for the acquisition of the file with “file ID: 1”. In Step S70, the home server 14 c of Mr. B, when receiving the request for the acquisition of the file with “file ID: 1”, sends the file with “file ID: 1” to the terminal device 12 a of Mr. A, and the terminal device 12 a of Mr. A acquires the file with “file ID: 1”.

In FIG. 12, dealing with a case where, although the upper server 20 b of Mr. B is inquired of the presence of the file, the file is no longer present in the home server 14 c of Mr. B is illustrated.

In Step S70, when the upper server 20 a of Mr. A inquires the upper server 20 b of Mr. B of the presence of the file, in some case, the record that the file is transmitted from the home server of Mr. A to the home server of Mr. B is present in the upper server 20 b of Mr. B, but is already deleted. At this point, in Step S72, when the file is redistributed to Mr. C before the file is deleted, the upper server 20 b of Mr. B acquires an upper server 20 c of Mr. C of the presence of the file. In Step S74, in a case where the file is present in the home server of Mr. C, the upper server 20 c of Mr. C notifies the upper server 20 a of Mr. A that the file is present.

It is noted that, in the exemplary embodiment described above, the upper server is configured to be a destination of the query for the presence of the file such that the query is possibly requested in a case where the home server does not work. However, a query may be requested to the home server since the record of the transmission, reception or the deletion is held in the home server. In a case where any one of the upper server and the home server normally works, a destination of the query may be determined according to a load situation of the server or a distance on the network.

Furthermore, the destination of the query may be a terminal device of a creator of a file, or a server to which the creator belongs. As illustrated in FIG. 4, meta information is included in a file ID, and thus a user ID of the creator is able to be acquired. Furthermore, as illustrated in FIG. 1, because a terminal device corresponds to the user ID is registered with the device management servers 14 b and 14 d, a terminal device is specified from the user ID, and a query is requested to the specified terminal device or home server.

Furthermore, because a person to which a distribution is made for the last time has a high likelihood of retaining a file, a query may be requested to a home server to which a distribution is made for the last time. Because a date and time of transmission of, or reception of, each file is recorded in an upper server, the dates and times are compared with each other, and thus a query is requested to an upper server of the person to which the distribution is made for the last time.

Furthermore, a server to which the creator belongs may be searched before any other home server is requested a query for the presence of a file. In some cases, the file is distributed to another person belonging to the same home server, and thus searching the same home server may take a shorter time to search any other server. For example, a link to another user may be included in a file that is distributed within a home server, and the file in which the link is included in this manner may be searched for.

In FIG. 13, an operation flow a file deletion is illustrated. First, in Step S76, a deletion instruction is received.

In the next step that is Step S78, a storage situation of a file that is going to be deleted is displayed. Examples of display, for example, are “retained in 10 servers”, or, when it is retained in a formal retention place of an organization, “retained within a . . . server” or the likes. Furthermore, in order to avoid inconvenience, only in a case where the number of remaining files is smaller than a prescribed threshold (for example, equal to or smaller than 3), displaying may be performed. A place or the number of remaining files which is retained in a server is able to be obtained from history information on each upper server, but because a home server with a creator of a file works collectively gathers records of transmission and reception or of deletion, a query may be requested to a home server of the creator.

In the next step that is Step S80, it is determined whether or not an instruction to perform deletion is received. In a case where it is determined in Step S80 that the instruction to perform deletion is received, proceeding to Step S82 takes place, a designated file is deleted, and in a case where the instruction to perform deletion is not received, the processing is ended.

The foregoing description of the embodiments of the present invention has been provided for the purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Obviously, many modifications and variations will be apparent to practitioners skilled in the art. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical applications, thereby enabling others skilled in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments and with the various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. It is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by the following claims and their equivalents. 

What is claimed is:
 1. An information processing apparatus comprising: a query unit that requests a query for a presence of a file to a device in a transmission destination or a transmission source based on a transmission or reception history of the file, in response to a restoration instruction to restore the file from a terminal device, the restoration instruction being made after a deletion instruction to delete the file is made at the terminal device; and a file restoration unit that restores the file by acquiring the file from the device storing the file in a case where the file is found to be present in the device in the transmission destination or the transmission source as a result of the query.
 2. A file management apparatus comprising: a history storage unit that stores a history of at least transmission or reception of a file, the file being uniquely identified; a query unit that requests a query for a presence of the file to a device in a transmission destination or a transmission source based on the history stored in the history storage unit, in response to a restoration instruction to restore the file from a terminal device, the restoration instruction being made after a deletion instruction to delete the file is made at the terminal device; and a file restoration unit that performs control to restore the file by acquiring the file from the device storing the file in a case where the file is found to be present in the device in the transmission destination or the transmission source as a result of the query.
 3. The file management apparatus according to claim 2, wherein, in response to a notification that the file is not present in the device in the transmission destination being received, the file restoration unit performs control to acquire the file from another transmission destination to which the transmission destination transmits the file.
 4. The file management apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the history storage unit stores information on a creator that creates the file, and the query unit requests the query for the file to the creator.
 5. The file management apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the history storage unit stores a time at which the file is transmitted, and the query unit requests the query to a latest transmission destination of the file.
 6. A file management system comprising: a file storage unit that stores a file, the file being uniquely identified; a history storage unit that stores a history of at least transmission or reception of the file; a query unit that requests a query for a presence of the file to a device in a transmission destination or a transmission source based on the history stored in the history storage unit, in response to a restoration instruction to restore the file from a terminal device, the restoration instruction being made after a deletion instruction to delete the file is made at the terminal device; and a file restoration unit that performs control to restore the file by acquiring the file from the device storing the file in a case where the file is found to be present in the device in the transmission destination or the transmission source as a result of the query. 